My latest, addictive craft.

I love fabric but I'm terrible at sewing. Thankfully, I can glue.

I got a bunch of embroidery hoops, a random assortment of "fat quarters," and a mini- hot glue gun, at Joann's today. I spent the afternoon burning myself with the glue gun / making decorative art, while Oliver entertained Toby. Usually Oliver only has Sunday off, so a whole weekend together is pretty exciting. My friend Chauntel made some of these fabric embroidery hoops a few years ago, and I love the ones she did. I have always wanted to try it. Now that I have, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

Toby says, "It's beautiful mama." Oliver says, "So does this mean you are going to cover all of the walls with these hoop things now?" Yeah. Pretty much.

New Camera!

My mom got me a new camera for my birthday!

My birthday is January, 29th, but she sent it early. Which is great, because boy did I need a new one! My old camera didn't even turn on at all sometimes, and when it did, only half the pictures would come out looking half way decent.

Last week we went out to dinner with my dad and I took a lot of pictures, but I didn't post any of them (until now) because, well, they looked like this:

Dinner with my dad (auto settings):

Dinner with my dad with the flash turned off:


The new camera is a whole lot better.
For example:

Oliver's Keys


Look mom, I can take pictures inside again!

All Thomas All the Time

My dad came up for work last week and took us all out to dinner - and bought a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff for Toby at the toy store. His timing could not have been better. It's been raining a lot lately, so this is pretty much how we have been passing the time, most days:

Our new vacuum cleaner!

I got a gift certificate to Macy's for Christmas and had been having a hard time deciding what to do with it. Then, my mom told me that she is planning on getting me a new camera for my birthday, so, that made the decision a lot easier. I came home with a new vacuum cleaner. Our old vacuum cleaner sucked - but not like a vacuum cleaner should. I had just vacuumed before I got the new one, and it was absolutely amazing how much dirt the new one extracted. I am very excited about it. Toby thought he box it came in was pretty exciting too!

Mama Moutain

Toby says the trains are going up a "really huge mountain," aka, my thighs.

Meeting the newest family member

I went to Santa Barbara this last weekend to meet the newest member of our clan. Welcome to the family Penelope!

My niece, Penelope, sister-in-law, Laurie, brother, James, and my mom, Juli.

Fairytale Town, Sacramento

Toby and I went to Faiytale Town today. It was awesome.

The Little Engine That Could

McGregor's Garden

They have it set up so that the kids can water the plants / flood the area, with little plastic watering cans and then play in the mud. That's what Toby did anyway. Next time I'll bring a change of clothes - he was pretty wet and muddy afterwards, but he had a lot of fun playing in Mr. McGregor's Garden.

There are all kinds of animals, all over the place too, goats, a cow, a donkey, chickens for the kids to chase around - some of them were quite unusual - several varieties of chickens - but, with all the kids chasing them around, it was hard to photograph them. I only got pictures of the more common ones - but you'll just have to take my word for it; Fairytale Town, Sacramento has some cool looking chickens.

Toby, saying hello to Charlotte in the barn. In Fairytown, "Charlotte," of Charlotte's Web fame, is a tarantula.

Also, I had to take a picture of this, because I think this might be the cutest public men's room I've ever seen. In fact, I don't think I've ever described a men's room as "cute" before. But, here it is:

Fairytale Town is pretty great. We had a fantastic time there today.